The House of Hades
by PercyJacksonAddict
Summary: Percy and Annabeth have been cast into Tartarus and must find their way to the Doors of Death. Meanwhile Jason Grace, Nico di Angelo, and friends must work together to take down Gaea's army on the other side of the Doors so that they can be closed from both sides. The hard part? They have a month to do it. T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**I**

**ANNABETH**

* * *

**Free-falling through the air.**

That was how Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, spent the first alone time with her boyfriend she'd gotten in days: Free-falling through the air into the deepest pits of hell.

Tartarus.

The feeling of falling like this, at a thousand miles per hour into pure darkness, was new. But the feeling of Percy Jackson's presence was not. She twisted her dirt-covered fingers through his rough, calloused ones in a death grip like he was her lifeline – which, in more than one way, he was. Annabeth dared to twist her sore neck to get a better look at his face…

She screamed when she saw that a large chunk of debris that looked like a car door had been crumpled like a piece of paper was hurtling down toward them. _Oh no, _Annabeth thought. _That entire parking lot…_

But that one car door was closer to them than all the other junk that was falling behind them. Percy, not looking as panic-stricken as Annabeth was, looked up and saw the huge metal scrap, and immediately took action. Before Annabeth could blink, his arms were wrapped protectively around her body and she automatically folded herself to fit in his grasp. Percy was shielding her with his body.

_CRASH!_

Another scream was ripped from Annabeth's throat. The sound of the car door finally reaching them and Percy taking the full hit was too much for her to handle. She squeezed her eyes closed after seeing Percy groan and bite down on his lip until he drew blood.

When she opened her eyes again and looked up, more debris was raining down on them like a meteor shower. Each time, Annabeth would scream as Percy once again took the full impact. The debris was flying around them now and there was no way to avoid it. Annabeth was too mortified to cry out as she watched her boyfriend's eyes roll back in his head as he struggled to stay conscious.

And then Annabeth saw it.

The bottom.

A baby-blue Fiat had just whirled past them, barely missing Percy. Annabeth's eyes stung and she was forced to squeeze them closed, but she heard the loud smash of the car hitting bottom. That meant that they were close too. Everything was blurry, but Annabeth turned her head and saw Percy narrow his eyes; he saw it too. He looked into her eyes, silently telling her he would find her no matter what. She wanted to melt.

And then he flipped them so he was underneath her. She screamed at him but he wouldn't listen. He took the full impact one last time: When they hit the rough, rocky bottom of the abyss.

And then Percy was gone; the force of the impact had torn their bodies apart, and Annabeth was on the ground, her wounds paining her even more as she rolled and rolled and rolled to the right. But it was too late to look around.

She blacked out.

* * *

When she woke up, she expected to be dizzy and to hear weird noises ringing in her ears.

But it wasn't like that at all.

Everything was sharper and clearer; her vision wasn't blurry at all and she felt like a dog whose ears perked up whenever it heard something. Her senses felt even more sharpened than they did when she was… on earth…

That ruined her fascination.

She was in _hell_! She was just some useless daughter of Athena with no special powers who had dragged her boyfriend, Percy-freaking-Jackson, down to the epitome of prison with her! How would she ever get out of here, anyway? She only had a month to reach the Doors of Death and meet her friends and Nico on the other side to close them both ways.

She was still a little afraid to call Nico her _friend. _He was a good little kid, despite everything he'd ever done to Percy and therefore done to her, but… he was shady. Mysterious. A little too hard to trust.

Annabeth sat up and the pain hit her like getting run over by a truck. She hissed in pain, but forced herself to sit up and lean against the wall… Wait, the _wall_?!

She craned her neck, evoking an obnoxiously loud crack from it, and saw that there was indeed a wall behind her. She knew immediately by the color that it was Celestial bronze, and she remembered that the walls of Tartarus were made out of Celestial bronze so the monsters wouldn't be able to escape.

So that meant that Annabeth had dropped down to the _edge _of Tartarus? And she would have to travel all the way to the Doors at the other side?

Most likely. She could never catch a break.

The next thought that occurred to her was _oh-my-gods-where-is-my-idiotic-boyfriend-and-why-in-Hades-would-he-do-what-he-just-did-for-me. _

"Percy?" she croaked. Thanks to her pride, she was almost embarrassed when it came out as a weak, pathetic whimper. _Annabeth Chase is not weak and pathetic. Annabeth Chase is strong and intimidating. _

"PERCY!"

The soft echo against the endless blackness in front of her sent chills up her spine.

There was no response.

Annabeth swore. Percy must have still been unconscious, which meant she would have to get up and find him. The thought of the pain that getting up and walking around would bring left a sour taste in her mouth, but she forced herself to her feet after remembering how many blows Percy had taken in her place. This was the least she could do for him.

Leaning on her good ankle and the wall for support, she started hobbling around in search for her backpack. She prayed to any of the gods that _didn't _hate her (i.e. most of them, besides Hera) that it wasn't too far away, and that Percy wasn't either. She needed both if she wanted to survive down here.

Her Athenian thought-processes kicking in, she wondered how far down she was, and how long she and Percy had been falling. She had read somewhere that an angel thrown from heaven took nine days to reach Tartarus. That didn't help much, because it meant she and Percy could've been falling for three days or thirty seconds.

She heard the crunching of gravel under her feet and kicked some pebbles around, inching her way forward. The glow of the Celestial bronze gave her some light, but not enough to see the infinite pitch blackness all around her. Had it not been for the wall, she was almost afraid the darkness would swallow her whole and she would never be heard from again.

But that was probably going to happen anyway.

She decided she had shuffled maybe fifteen yards before her foot hit something. She gasped and bent over, ignoring the searing burn in her midsection, grabbing her backpack. She sat down on her butt and opened it up, grabbing a small square of ambrosia and wolfing it down. It helped a little with the pain, but it mostly just helped her gain her breath back after that hard fall. Any mortal would've died.

Too bad she wasn't a mortal.

Her head snapped up when she heard a distant sound, like someone retching. She would've grimaced at the thought of hearing someone vomiting but then she realized it was Percy.

"Percy!" she yelled.

More retching.

She hoisted the backpack, dirty and dusted with spiderwebs, onto her back and with one hand on the wall beside her started limping toward the sound of barfing.

Percy wasn't far. She found him lying on the gravel, panting. Blood was dribbling from his mouth and Annabeth's own stomach fluids nearly came up when she saw the puddle of vomit and blood two feet away.

"Annabeth," Percy croaked, turning his head weakly to face her. He smiled, and the blood in his teeth made him look like a vampire who had just grabbed a snack. "You found me."

She nearly started crying.

Once again forgetting about the immense pain, she pushed her hand off of the wall and hobbled over to her boyfriend, dropping to her knees beside him. She gently took his head and cradled it in her lap.

"You idiot," she sobbed dryly. She didn't need to say anything else. He smiled up at her with shiny green eyes and she looked away. "Thank you," she whispered. "For everything."

"Don't mention it," he said hoarsely, his eyes fluttering shut. "I love you."

She bit her lip to keep the tears from leaking.

"What hurts?" she asked immediately, lifting up his heavy, muscular form so he was sitting up. She dragged him to the wall and set his back against it.

"Everything," he whispered, then turned away.

She moved him again so he was lying flat with his head in her lap. She leaned against the wall and ran her fingers through his greasy hair, staring up at the darkness above. There wasn't a speck of light to be seen.

"How long do you think we were falling?" Percy asked. He always seemed to know what she was thinking about.

"Well," she said, "I read somewhere that an angel thrown from heaven took nine days to reach the bottom of the pit. If we were thrown from earth…"

"Wow," said Percy. "And we only have a month to make it to the Doors and close them, then get out and meet our friends on the other sides." He proceeded to throw his arm over his face and cough into it harshly.

"We only have a month?"

"Yeah. Jason and Piper say the twins told them Gaea will awaken in exactly a month from… whenever that was. I don't know how long we've been here but we can't afford to waste our time. I know you're in pain, Annabeth, and I hate to do this to you. But we have to keep moving. Do you have your knife?"

"No," she admitted. "I found my backpack but I don't know where my knife went. It fell out of its sheath."

It was dead silent. The only sounds were Annabeth's whisperings to herself and Percy's heavy, shallow breathing.

"Don't feel bad," she told him, looking down at him fondly as he reached up to twirl his fingers around one of her curls. "It's not your fault, Percy."

He sat up and shakily, leaning on her for support, got to his feet. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. They stood like that, hugging, for only seconds, but it felt like years to Annabeth.

"It's always my fault," Percy said finally. "Come on, let's explore this place while you explain to me why in Hades that wall is made out of Celestial bronze."


	2. Chapter 2

**EDIT: PLEASE NOTICE THIS CHAPTER WAS EXTENDED AND REVISED.**

* * *

**II**

**JASON**

* * *

**Jason felt uncharacteristically irresponsible.**

After so many years spent at the Wolf House, then even longer spent at Camp Jupiter, he should've been a little more heroic. With Percy gone, he was the new leader of the _Argo II'_s passengers. Jason and the Argonauts… that did fit quite well, didn't it?

He shook his head, disgusted at himself for thinking thoughts like those when Annabeth and Percy had been sacrificed to _Tartarus_, and therefore to Gaea.

It was his fault. He could've flown down to save them. He could've grabbed Percy's hand. He could've done _something_.

But no, he went and retreated. Like a coward, and definitely not like Jason Grace.

He pounded his fist against the table in frustration, not even noticing until his hand began to throb and everyone at the table looked up at him except for Nico.

_Nico. _Just the thought of the kid made Jason's eye twitch. Who was he, really? Jason knew him more with the title of Hazel's Brother and Son of Hades, but what else was there to him?

He was like walking death, and he was, like, twelve! The bags under his eyes were a dark shade of purple that contrasted with his pale, chalky skin. He wore all black other than the worn aviator's jacket covering his wiry torso. A creepy skull ring curled around his finger. If Jason looked long enough, he swore the eye holes on that thing glowed red. This was Percy's cousin? This was his _sister_'s cousin?

Piper gently laid her hand on his thigh underneath the table. "You okay?" she asked, studying his face.

He looked at her, then looked around at everyone staring at him. He cleared his throat and swallowed, feeling his cheeks flush. "Uh, yeah, sorry. Just a little frustrated with this whole thing," he admitted.

"Don't worry, we're all pretty messed up about this," Hazel assured him.

Leo entered the room and took the seat next to Piper and across from Frank, who eyed him warily. Jason couldn't pretend he didn't notice what was going on between Leo and Frank and Hazel. He himself had experienced a love triangle before and knew exactly what poor Hazel was going through.

"Set course to Epirus," Leo informed them. "We should be there in a few hours or so, assuming we don't run into any… distractions on the way."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Of course we're going to run into distractions. We're walking right into Gaea's outstretched arms here."

"And can we really do anything about that?" Jason retorted, a bubble of hot anger expanding in his chest. "Do you not feel the need to get Percy and Annabeth back?"

"And save the world at the same time?" Nico asked doubtfully, examining his ring.

Jason pounded his fist on the table again and stood up. "That's it, I've had enough of you just sitting around and acting like this is no big deal. They could be dead already!"

Nico sighed. "I thought I told you I can sense things like that. Plus, it's Percy we're talking about here. They're alive."

"But will they be after the war?" Jason challenged, unwilling to back down.

Nico narrowed his eyes. "After the war? You don't understand, Jason. I've gone through things like this before. This _is _the war, and we're already on the battlefield. We just don't know it."

Jason's eye twitched, just as he predicted would happen.

Who did this little kid think he was, acting so wise and philosophical at a time like this?

"Listen," Jason growled out through gritted teeth. "I don't know you, and I don't want to. But you need to get us to Epirus and help us with Gaea's armies. We can do without these little chats in between, agreed?"

Nico crossed his arms indignantly and raised a dark eyebrow, as if asking Jason if that were a challenge or not.

"Look, guys –" Frank tried to intervene.

Piper curled her hand around the crook of Jason's elbow. "No – "

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone flinched. Hazel never screamed that loud. Never.

"Do you guys even hear what you're fighting about?" Hazel cried, her voice cracking. "This is like Romans vs. Greeks again! The Romans are on their way to destroy Annabeth and Percy and Piper and Leo's _home_, Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus, there's a freaking _war _going on! Yes, we can do without these little chats, thank you very much!"

But Jason knew that last part wasn't just directed at Nico.

He looked anywhere but Hazel. The distress in her voice worked on him like charmspeak.

"We need to work _together. _We're not going to be prejudiced. We're not going to judge each other by our pasts. We're going to stick with each other and get through this. We're going to win this war or die trying. Understood?"

Everyone nodded, terrified of the younger girl. Nico didn't move, instead studied her like he was zoning out while staring at her.

For some reason, that annoyed Jason. But he, very smartly, kept quiet.

The silence was unnerving – until it was broken.

"DIE!" Coach Hedge yelled, swatting at a fly with his club.

* * *

"Hey, Jason."

Jason looked up from his bunk, where he had been sprawled out studying a map of Epirus, Greece, and looking for possible locations of the Doors of Death. He didn't need Nico's help. Not at all.

He gave her the most genuine smile he had given anyone all day, and motioned for her to come in. "Hey."

One word was all she needed. She lay down next to him on his bed, lifting his arm up and putting it around her. The proximity didn't make Jason uncomfortable at all. It was actually rather assuring to remember he had people like Piper by his side.

Jason lay on his back, the map thrown on the floor. Piper lay on her side, snuggled up to his chest. "I know you're not okay, Jason," she said softly.

"You're really beautiful," he mumbled.

She tightened her grip on his shirt. "Don't change the subject. I know you're stressed. I know you're blaming yourself for what happened to Percy and Annabeth. I know you don't like Nico."

"You know me," Jason summed up.

Piper shifted and propped herself up on her elbows, staring at him intently. "Yeah," she said thoughtfully, "I do. Now stop blaming yourself for Percy and Annabeth. That wasn't your fault."

"But I could've saved them!" Jason argued. "I'm supposed to be the big hero when it comes to these things!"

"Even heroes have their off days," Piper reminded him. "You're no exception."

Those words left a cold feeling in his stomach. _You're no exception. _

Blinking away the strangely creepy thought, he kissed Piper. "I love you, by the way. Never got to tell you. I was a little busy drowning."

Piper gave him one of her breathtaking smiles. "I love _you_," she said, leaning in for another kiss.

* * *

Jason dreamed that he was in a casual conversation with Gaea.

She would've been beautiful if her skin wasn't so green. Her features were Greek, you could easily tell. Her long, wavy hair was a dark, dark brown, like the color of moist soil. The green tint to her skin was much more vivid and opaque than the tree nymphs' skin back at Camp Half-Blood.

It was hard to tell where he was, but it looked smack in the middle of a forest. Tall, green pines surrounded them. He heard the rippling sounds of water in a creek nearby. The ground was rocky, though, like gravel. Weird.

He tried not to roll his eyes when she smiled tauntingly at him. "What?" He demanded, getting straight to the point.

"Your friends cannot be saved," she said lazily.

For the first time since the dream started, Jason noticed that her eyes were closed. But she was standing up. She was talking to him. All telltale signs that her full awakening was sooner than it seemed.

"It is," she told Jason, reading his thoughts. "I will rise far above any god or Titan. I will be bigger than the great Typhon, with more power and authority than my pathetic excuse for a son Kronos. I wlll rule the universe and every living being will wait on me and do as I command."

"Assuming there are any living beings left," Jason muttered.

A slow smile spread across Gaea's face. Her mouth barely opened when she spoke, but her words were clear and annunciated. "Ah, you make a very good point, son of Jupiter. All heroes have a fate. They will rise above all others, but will find that when things get too hard, they _give up. _They fail. You are no exception."

Jason (well, the dream version) almost died.

_You are no exception. You are no exception. You are no –_

* * *

Jason awoke from his nap to the sirens blaring. Bright red washed everything in his vision. Remembering Leo's emergency instructions, he threw himself out of bed, put on a clean shirt, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and headed above deck.

"What's going –" he started, but stopped when he saw what had landed on deck.

Leo was holding the Archimedes sphere, which was glowing faintly. "I swear to the gods, it was an accident."

An enormous bird was perched right on the railing, chirping so loudly Jason wanted to cut his ears off.

"Oh gods," Jason said.

"Exactly," Frank mumbled.

"I think I remember what it's called," said Piper. "A Phoenix or something."

Upon hearing its title, the bird let out a deafening squawk.

Leo went to turn off the alarm.

"We should name it," said Hazel, taking a step closer to the bird that seemed to be on fire.

Leo grinned. "Wow, I didn't even mean to summon this thing, but it's gonna be my best friend!" He set his hand ablaze, and the Phoenix immediately turned to him, sensing the flame. "Cool!" Leo said.

"How about Sparky?" Frank suggested.

"No," Piper said immediately, looking at Jason. Jason smiled and put his arm around her waist.

"Blaze?"

"Too cliché," said Leo. "I don't want this perfect animal to have a cheesy Greek or Latin name, either."

Jason sighed impatiently. "Leo, I don't care what you name your new friend, but I need to know how it got here and what we're going to do with it."

"Alvin!" Leo shouted. "I'm calling him Alvin, I don't care what you say!"

"Um, okay?" Hazel said.

"Hey Al, how you doing?" Leo asked.

The loudest squawk yet. The fire on its wings burnt brighter and it reached out to touch Leo, who let him set it his arm on fire. Jason watched the smile grow on Leo's face. He shook his head and turned to Piper, pulling her closer to him.

"What is that thing doing here?" he asked quietly.

She looked up at him. "Leo was playing around with that Archimedes sphere, trying to communicate with someone. He wouldn't say who… But all of a sudden it started glowing really bright, and then the Phoenix just flew up and landed on the ship. I have no idea, honestly, what goes through that little boy's mind."

"He claims it was an accident," said Jason.

"I bet it was," Piper agreed. "It looks like he didn't mean to summon it. Come to think of it, he might not have summoned it at all. Phoenixes are said to come from the sun god, Helios…"

"You think he wants us?"

"I'm sure of it."

"Hey Leo," Jason called. "Where can we find a sun god around here?"

Leo nodded, like he had been thinking that too. Jason had to remember that Leo wasn't always just fun and games. He was just as serious about this as the rest of them.

"But what if it's a trap?" Frank, who had obviously figured out what they were thinking even though he barely knew any Greek mythology, asked nervously.

"But maybe he wants to help us or something," Hazel put in.

"Probably the former," Leo assumed, "but the latter does sound quite nice. The chances are slim, though."

"We'll take the risk," said Piper. "We need all the help we can get at this point, and we only have a month to finish this off. From what I know, Helios lives to the far east of the world. We have to think – back then, the Greeks assumed there was barely any land on earth, just their land and the few other civilizations' land. We have to look at a Greek map and find the easternmost part."

"I'm on it," Leo said, gesturing for his friends to follow him into the control room.

Jason watched as Leo's nimble fingers flew over the black keyboard and a large, holographic image appeared in front of them. A map had popped up.

"Rhodes is really far to the east," Jason observed.

"Helios was the patron god of the island," said Piper.

"Well, it looks like we're changing directions," said Hazel.

"We are," Jason confirmed. "Leo, switch routes to Rhodes, Greece."

Leo's hands flew over the keyboard once again. "_Rhodes, Greece,_" a feminine computerized voice said, "_Time to reach destination: Three hours four minutes. Team Leo for the win._"

Leo patted his control pad. "Thanks, baby."

For the first ten minutes, it was smooth sailing. Leo chatted up a storm with Alvin, Piper and Jason stood at the railing and watched the ship break through the clouds, and Hazel and Frank disappeared below deck.

It just wasn't the same without Annabeth sprouting random facts or yelling at someone and Percy eating junk food or training himself to be a better swordsman (although Jason, and presumably anyone else, didn't really see room for improvement).

Jason's thought bubble popped when Hazel and Frank climbed above deck and ran over.

"Guys," Frank panted.

Piper put a hand on Frank's shoulder. "Relax, relax. What is it?"

"It's Nico," Hazel said miserably. "He's gone."

* * *

**EDIT: A/N Sorry it took so long to post this! Thanks for all the lovely reviews, they are greatly appreciated! xx**


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